Resumen de Cien años de la cuestión franciscana. Evolución de la problematica.
The appearance in 1893 of the Vie de Saint François d'Assise, written by Paul Sabatier, marked the beginning of the so-called "Franciscan Question", the great discussion on the historical and literary level about the identity, the intrinsic value, and the interdependence of the early biographical sources concerning St. Francis. The discussion, which began with the publication of three biographies of St. Francis and the previous studies which had appeared in Acta Samctorum, has lasted for the best part of a century. During this period various Franciscan sources were edited and, above all, various intellectuals began to study the figure of St. Francis from a new perspective in relation to that of the preceding hagiography. In the course of this hundred years, the "Franciscan Question" has undergone an evolution, the major steps of which are considered here in their fundamental aspects. The first was centred on the discussion concerning the value and priority of 1 Celano and Speculum Perfectionis. Almost simultaneously, the related problematic with the legend Trium Sociorum, in which distinguished scholars interested themselves, arose; the discussion has lasted for the greater part of the century and, despite this, some questions have yet to be resolved. In the first decades of the polemic, various manuscripts were discovered, or published, with readings or gragments of text which made a notable contribution towards clarigying the problem. Among these discoveries, the most famous was undoubtedly Ms. 1046 in the Communal Library of Perugia, known today as the Compilatio Assisiensis; its appearance focused the "Franciscan Question" upon the material which Vrescenzio de Jesi, under orders from the Chapter of Genova in 1244, gathered prior to the redaction of 2 Celano. Various studies have been undertaken in this fields with diverse results, but all attempts have greatly contributed to the solution of the problem. The critical edition of various sources, especially of those known as "official" legends, has contributed in great measure to the clarification of the problematic. This stugy ends by presenting a synthesis, in nine points, of the actual state of the "question".
